What Would Be the Next Design Evolution Under the Auspices of Industry 4.0?

Abstract

Industry 4.0 has recently been used as a synonym for the planned fourth Industrial Revolution, comparable to the radical transformations from the first Industrial Revolution toward “Mechanization” (Industry 1.0) and its subsequent second one toward “Electrification” (Industry 2.0) to the third Industrial Revolution toward “Digitization” (Industry 3.0). Product design accompanied by the industrial and technological developments has also evolved from “Design for mechanical production” (Design 1.0) and “Design for mass production” (Design 2.0) to a systemic paradigm shift toward “human considerations” and “environmental concerns” (Design 3.0). The concept of Industry 4.0 describes the trend toward digitalization, networklization, and intellectualization of the production environment, enabling industries to plan and project a product’s entire value chain over its lifecycle. As such, a critical issue to both academia and industry is to ponder what will be the next design evolution (i.e., Design 4.0) in response to the initiative of Industry 4.0. Through a comprehensive review of current technological development, this study proposes a new perspective on total product-service design (TPSD), the purpose of which is to develop a practical methodology to facilitate the design and development of innovative products.